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The collection through colour

Tours
Date
  • Past - Wednesday, 14 May 2025
  • Past - Thursday, 12 June 2025
  • Thursday, 17 July 2025
Time
Session times
  • 10.15 - 11.15 am
  • 11.45 am - 12.45 pm
Thursday, 17 July 2025 at 10.15 am - Cancelled
Audience
For Members

Tickets

Members: £20

This is a Members' exclusive event. Please have your membership card and ticket ready.

Please meet at the Information Desk located in the Sainsbury Wing Foyer.

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About

How do we interpret colour? Sir Isaac Newton's identification of the colour spectrum resulted in the acronym ROYGBIV which, in the words of the poet John Keats, 'had destroyed the poetry of the rainbow by reducing it to a prism'. In this series of guided walking tours, Maurizio Patti encourages you to look at the collection one colour at a time.

These are guided walking tours through the collection for which headsets will be provided. Please meet at the Information Desk in the Sainsbury Wing Foyer.

Led by Maurizio Patti

Date
Wednesday, 14 May 2025
This event has ended.

In this tour, Maurizio focuses on the colour black and helps us to understand the symbolism, meaning, theories, and beauty of this hue. 

Look closer at Holbein's 'Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan' with her elegant black dress, and the billowing clouds and musket fire in Manet's 'The Execution of Maximilian', amongst many others that draw us to the colour black.

Past

Led by Maurizio Patti

Date
Thursday, 12 June 2025
This event has ended.

In this tour, Maurizio focuses on the colour green and helps us to understand the symbolism, meaning, theories, and beauty of this hue. 

Look closer at Raphael's 'The Mond Crucifixion' with its winged angels, and the verdant mountainside in Giovanni di Paolo's 'Saint John the Baptist retiring to the Desert', amongst many others that draw us to the colour green.

Led by Maurizio Patti

Date
Thursday, 17 July 2025
Time
  • 10.15 - 11.15 am - Cancelled
  • 11.45 am - 12.45 pm

In this tour, Maurizio focuses on the colour red and helps us to understand the symbolism, meaning, theories, and beauty of this hue. 

Look closer at Robert Campin's 'A Man' with his heavy red hat, and the vibrant lobster in Kalf's 'Still-Life with a Drinking Horn', amongst many others that draw us to the colour red.

Your host

Maurizio Patti, originally from Cortona, Italy, is an expert guide and tutor. Patti has three degrees ranging from Languages and Visual Arts (Siena, Italy) to Philosophy and Theology, (University of Louvain, Belgium, London campus). Before moving to London in 1990, Patti worked as a teacher, interpreter and guide in Italy. Upon his arrival in London, Patti furthered his knowledge of visual arts through courses at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Gallery and City Lit. Patti is now an art expert and lecturer for Tate Galleries and the Institute of Tourist Guiding (History of Art). Maurizio presents guides in English, Italian, French, Spanish